Top graft-buster calls corruption fight 'long process'

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Top graft-buster calls corruption fight 'long process'

China's top graft-buster launched a scathing attack on the ruling Communist Party's members yesterday, writing that party political culture remained "unhealthy" and governance weak, even after five years of renewed effort to combat the problem. The comments by Wang Qishan, who runs the party's anti-corruption watchdog, came after sources said a senior official once considered a contender for promo...

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China's top graft-buster launched a scathing attack on the ruling Communist Party's members yesterday, writing that party political culture remained "unhealthy" and governance weak, even after five years of renewed effort to combat the problem.

The comments by Wang Qishan, who runs the party's anti-corruption watchdog, came after sources said a senior official once considered a contender for promotion at autumn's key party congress, is being investigated for "discipline violations."

Wang said inspections that have begun since President Xi Jinping took office five years ago routinely discovered the same problems.

"All of the issues discovered during the inspections reflect the weakening of party leadership, shortcomings in party building, and insufficient efforts to strictly enforce party discipline," Wang wrote in the party's official People's Daily. "Party concepts are faint, organization is lax, and discipline flabby. The root is in the party's internal political life being not serious and unhealthy."

As head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Wang has been the chief enforcer of Xi's pervasive anti-corruption drive, and is widely considered as the party's most powerful man after the president.

Despite an unwritten retirement age rule suggesting he should step down at the fall party congress, Wang, who turns 69 this month, could be kept on by Xi as head of a new National Supervisory Commission, that will combine the powers of several graft-fighting bodies, sources have told media.

Wang said in his People's Daily piece the battle against corruption would remain "a long process."

Critics of Xi's anti-corruption campaign have long accused it of being an instrument to sideline political rivals.

Sun Zhengcai, 53, the Chongqing party boss abruptly removed from office on the weekend, had been seen as a potential candidate for elevation at the autumn congress, and a possible future premier. But his star had waned since coming under criticism from the anti- corruption watchdog.